Tuamotus, Ah̩ РJun 2007
We had reasonable winds from Nuku Hiva to Ahé and took the predicted five days for the journey.
We slowed our arrival at Ahé down so that we would have daylight for the approach to the only deep pass, which is on the north-west corner of the atoll. We kept a few miles off until after 8am, then slowly approached the pass to see if it was navigable yet, although we were really two hours early for slack tide. The pass was plenty wide and deep enough but we had to motor hard to overcome the outflow, and at 9am we were in! The village is 3 miles further, in the southwest, and there are several coral heads on the way, in fact most of these are well marked. Elaine sat high on the spotting platform to look out for coral. Eventually we reached the anchorage, inside a breakwater by the village, and anchored among many coral heads.
We were assured by the other yacht already there that the wind always blows in roughly the same direction so we shouldn’t swing about much.
The village has a substantial concrete dock area, a post office and one or two tiny shops that are part of houses. Mostly coconut palms grow, although some gardens have breadfruit trees and a few other trees, and some pretty flowering bushes. The houses have many solar panels and water collection tanks. There is a school which caters for at least primary education, with four teachers. The village has cargo deliveries every few days by various small cargo boats which seem to do the rounds. Past the village is the outer shore of the atoll, a flat coral beach covered at high tide and fringed by breakers from the deep water just beyond. There is no sloping beach and the sea bed rapidly drops to 1000m, 2000m and more outside the atoll. Inside the atoll lagoon the depth is generally 20-30m. The ring of land of the Ahe atoll is separated into many motus such as the one the village occupies. On Ahe these are all covered in coconut palms. On motus at the other end of the atoll are a hotel, an airstrip bringing flights from Tahiti, and at least one pearl farm.
There is only one deep pass, but special flat-bottomed aluminium fishing boats are used by locals, which can traverse the coral-strewn shallow water between more of the motus.
The locals seem to be well off, mainly fishing, farming oysters for black pearls (which are actually anthracite grey and various other hues) and harvesting copra which is the fibrous part of coconut ….we think. French subsidies also ensure everyone’s welfare.
We spent many days here just enjoying the peace and quiet, snorkelling and even managing some windsurfing, as the trade winds are not stopped by much land here, but the water is flat.
Under the water is like a tropical fish tank with no barriers … the variety is endless all with perfect visibility.
We had friends here, Tony and Linda stayed a few days, and when they left some other boats arrived with kids on board, so Dan and Lisa had some young company!
One day we tied to the quay and hauled the boat over on a halyard to put some antifouling on the waterline, which was otherwise a lot of work to keep weed-free. We were joined by various local onlookers, including a horde of kids from the school during their lunch break, who were very friendly and easy to chat to.
Elaine traded a cheap bottle of rum from Trinidad for seven black pearls of assorted size, colour and shape from a local boat. Presumably they are lower quality pearls than in the shops, but we think we can make something of them – it has to be a good deal!
We eventually summoned up the motivation to leave this quiet and peaceful place, to head on to Rangiroa.